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Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
|revenue=$209,073,645 |preceded_by= |followed_by= }} Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a 2004 black comedy film directed by Brad Silberling. It is based on the first three novels, The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window, in Lemony Snicket's eponymous book series. Plot The film is narrated by Lemony Snicket (Jude Law), who occasionally appears in silhouette, writing the story on a typewriter from the interior of a clock tower. Inventive Violet Baudelaire (Emily Browning), her intelligent younger brother Klaus (Liam Aiken), and their sharp-toothed, precocious baby sister Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman) are orphaned when a mysterious fire destroys their parents' mansion. They are placed in the care of bank manager Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall), who entrusts them to their "closest relative" which is a fourth cousin three times removed or a third cousin four times removed. However, misinterpreting the phrase, Mr. Poe chooses their distant relative who lives the shortest distance away, the obnoxious Count Olaf (Jim Carrey). Olaf promises to take care of the orphans, but in fact is only interested in the huge fortune that Violet will inherit when she turns 18. In the meantime, he treats them like slaves. His initial plan to claim the Baudelaire fortune, involving the orphans' demise under the wheels of a train, backfires and loses him custody of the children. Mr. Poe then sends the children to live with their uncle, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery (Billy Connolly), a cheerfully eccentric herpetologist with a well-stocked 'reptile room' full of exotic and often fictitious reptiles, who is planning a trip to Peru. Their stay with "Uncle Monty" is cut short when Olaf appears in disguise as a man named Stephano, a replacement for Monty's assistant Gustav. The Baudelaires see through the disguise instantly. They manage to communicate to Monty that Olaf is an impostor, but fail to impress upon their uncle the villain's true intention on him. Monty remains convinced that the supposed Stephano is a rival herpetologist come to plagiarize Monty's recent scientific discoveries. Olaf later murders Monty and frames a large and poisonous viper for the killing. As the disguised Olaf and his henchperson prepare to spirit the children away, Sunny reveals the snake's true gentle nature, and Olaf's plot is exposed. This persuades a skeptical Mr. Poe and a police inspector (Cedric the Entertainer) to accept Olaf's guilt, though not his true identity. The count abandons his disguise and escapes with his associate. Events now take the children to the gloomy shores of Lake Lachrymose, where their Aunt, Josephine Anwhistle (Meryl Streep), resides in a house perched precariously on the edge of a cliff overlooking the waters of the vast lake. She has numerous irrational fears, and yet lives in a house populated with many of those things of which she is terrified by - her fear of realtors prevents her from moving. The house is held up by stilts and includes a large window facing the lake. A room of photographs and documents apparently contains clues to the cause of the fire that killed the orphans' parents; Josephine, too, appears to know more than she is willing to reveal. Before the children can discover more, however, Olaf arrives once again, disguised as a sailor named Captain Sham, and quickly gains Josephine's confidence. She accompanies him back to her home, leaving the children alone to complete the day's shopping. The orphans soon discover that Josephine has disappeared and the window smashed, leading the Baudelaires to believe that she has committed suicide. She leaves what is ostensibly a suicide note, but which is, in fact, a coded message telling them that she is hiding in Curdled Cave on the shore of the lake. As the children prepare to leave for the cave, the house is torn apart by a hurricane. The Baudelaires escape, eventually find Josephine, and attempt to make their way to safety. The deadly Lachrymose Leeches reach them first. Count Olaf catches up with them, rescuing the Baudelaires but leaving Josephine at the mercy of the water and of the leeches to prevent her from revealing his designs on the orphans. Mr. Poe arrives, and returns the Baudalaire's to Olaf's custody, moved by Olaf's apparent dedication to the safety of the children. At Olaf's home, Olaf concocts his final plan, involving a play starring himself and Violet. In the play, his character marries Violet's character, but in such a way that the staged marriage is legal, gaining him access to her inheritance. This move is accomplished by Olaf's casting of Justice Strauss (Catherine O'Hara), as the supposed judge in the play; with her in this role, the marriage is technically legal. To ensure Violet's co-operation, he holds Sunny hostage. Klaus tries to rescue Sunny, but is thwarted by one of Olaf's henchmen. In the final moments of the play, as Olaf triumphantly brandishes the marriage certificate, Klaus succeeds in incinerating the document from a distance with the aid of the same light-focusing apparatus that Olaf used to set fire to the Baudelaire mansion. After Olaf's arrest, and subsequent escape, Mr. Poe makes one last stop in the ruins of the Baudelaires' home. There the orphans find the letter left to them by their parents before the Baudelaires became orphans, which contains words of hope and encouragement. The envelope also contains a spyglass, one of several that appear throughout the film to imply the presence of a secret society to which the protagonists' parents belonged. The film ends with Snicket finishing the story by saying that "there are people in the world who know no misery and woe and they take comfort in cheerful films about twittering birds and giggling elves. There are people who know that there's always a mystery to be solved and they take comfort in researching and writing down any important evidence" and then reminds the audience that "this story is not about such people, but about the Baudelaires, who are the sort of people who know that there's always something to invent, read, bite, and something to do to make a sanctuary, no matter how small". The last shot is of the Baudelaires en route to their new guardians, and Snicket quoting the final line to The Wide Window, which states that the Baudelaires were "very fortunate, indeed". Cast *Jim Carrey as Count Olaf *Emily Browning as Violet Baudelaire *Liam Aiken as Klaus Baudelaire *Kara and Shelby Hoffman as Sunny Baudelaire *Timothy Spall as Mr. Poe *Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty *Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine *Catherine O'Hara as Justice Strauss *Luis Guzmán as Bald Man *Jamie Harris as Hook-Handed Man *Craig Ferguson as Person of Indeterminate Gender *Jane Adams and Jennifer Coolidge as White-Faced Women *Jude Law as Lemony Snicket *Cedric the Entertainer as Constable *Robert Clendenin as Grocery Clerk *Lenny Clarke as Gruff Grocer *John Dexter as Gustav *Dustin Hoffman as Critic *Daniel Handler as Photographer *Jane Lynch as Realtor *Helena Bonham Carter as Beatrice Baudelaire Omissions The Bad Beginning *Klaus' wearing of glasses (He is only seen wearing them when he is reading). *Violet skipping stones at Briny Beach and inventing a way to retrieve them is omitted (but is included in the deleted scenes). *The Baudelaires' stay at the Poe home. *The characters of Edgar and Albert Poe. *The Baudelaires' visit to Justice Strauss' library and subsequent visit to the market. *The Baudelaires' visit to Mr. Poe at Mulctuary Money Management. *The phone call Mr. Poe makes to Count Olaf. *The Baudelaires' second visit to Justice Strauss' library. *The stealing of the book on nuptial law. *The hook-handed man's retrieval of the orphans. *Klaus' reading all night long. *Count Olaf's escape (but is included in the deleted scenes). The Reptile Room *The Mamba du Mal (Although in the Reptile Room, a cage with a sheet over it can be seen, so the Mamba Du Mal may be inside). *The children assisting Dr. Montgomery (but is included in the deleted scenes). *The children's rooms (Violet, although, is seen opening the door of hers slightly to see if anyone is outside, but is caught by Olaf, who is sitting in a rocking chair down the hall). *The children, Dr. Montgomery, and Stephano's viewing of the film Zombies in the Snow is omitted. *Dr. Montgomery's tearing up of Stephano's ticket. *The Prospero. *The character of Bruce. The Wide Window *Captain Sham's Sail Boats. *Sunny stealing keys from the person who is neither a man nor a woman. *Mr. Poe coming to get the children after hearing about Aunt Josephine's "suicide". *The Anxious Clown and Larry the Waiter. *Mr. Poe's reading of Aunt Josephine's note. *Peppermints and the Baudelaire's allergies to them. Differences Between the Novels and Film *Another change from the books is that Count Olaf is shown to be responsible for starting the fire at the Baudelaire mansion by pointing a giant, eye-shaped magnifying glass at the house. The only novel that has any proof for this was The Slippery Slope, when Quigley tells Carmelita that Count Olaf will probably burn down their houses, and Klaus claims to have the proof for it. Olaf is a known arsonist, and the Baudelaires secretly believed him to be responsible for the cause of all their trouble; when he was finally confronted, Olaf neither confirmed nor denied it, just telling them that they knew nothing. *Like the original books, the movie contains various clues to the mystery of the Baudelaire parents' deaths. For instance, the children discover that all of their relatives seemed to own spyglasses, and acquire one themselves at the end. Count Olaf has an eye-shaped tattoo on his ankle, and Aunt Josephine's wide window is also eye-shaped. The initials "V.F.D." can also be spotted although in the books the orphans first see them in The Austere Academy: near the beginning of the film when Klaus tries to grab the hot spyglass,then again (though not sure if the makers of the movie even realized it), when the Baudelaires are pulling the track switcher, Count Olaf is holding a magazine and then lowers it before he starts laughing, if you look at the back cover it has an ad that says: V'eritable '''F'rench 'D'iner, which obviously clearly states, ''V.F.D.'' *There are quite a few differences between the books and the film. Many of these involve some dark content being toned down, although some are related to time restrictions common to most book-to-movie conversions. The biggest example of this is the ending of The Wide Window. In the book, the wedding takes place near the end of the first book. In the film, the wedding takes place at the end of the storyline of the third book. According to the DVD commentary, this was changed to give the film a better climactic ending. However, in the book, the wedding was one of the main reasons for the children to be taken away from Count Olaf. Therefore a small scene was added in the movie in which Olaf tries to kill the Baudelaires by stopping his car on the rail track at the Last Chance General Store gas station, locking them inside, and waiting for the train to come. Mr. Poe arrives later and takes the orphans away from Olaf's care. *The clothes the Baudelaire orphans wore in the film is different than in the books. Sunny wears a green dress with pink stripes on the skirt; Violet is dressed in a blue dress; and Klaus is wearing slacks and a blue sweater over a white dress shirt. The Bad Beginning *The children go straight to the remains of their home after being picked up by Mr. Poe from Briny Beach instead of going to Mr. Poe's Home. *In the book, Violet climbs the tower to save Sunny, the night before Olaf's play. In the film, Klaus is the one who climbs, Violet being in the play. In the film, Olaf recognizes Violet writing with her left hand and tells her to use her right hand. In the book, Olaf did not see her write with her left, voiding the marriage. The Reptile Room *Uncle Monty seems to have met Violet when she was a baby and to have known their parents. This is not true in the book. *Uncle Monty states that they will be leaving for Peru the morning following their arrival whereas in the novel they were to leave in ten days. *Uncle Monty states that he had a wife, children, and home but lost them all to a fire whereas in the novel he states that he always wanted a family but never got around to it. *The original ending for The Reptile Room section in the book was a scene of Sunny biting the Hook-Handed Man's fake, disguised hands. In the movie, she played with the Incredibly Deadly Viper to prove that it did not kill Uncle Monty. In the book, the scene wherein they must cook dinner is very different from the film. In the book, the orphans search for a cookbook. In the film, they search for something to cook, not finding anything edible until looking in a cupboard where are many pieces of stale pasta. The children do not visit Justice Strauss's home in the film. *In the book The Reptile Room Count Olaf is disguised by wearing a long coat, shaving his head, and having a false beard, whereas in the film, Count Olaf wears a yellow coat, glasses, and has a false moustache. *The eye tattoo that Count Olaf sports on his ankle is considerably different from the one described in the book and drawn by Lemony Snicket in his fictional autobiography. The tattoo in the books is formed out of the letters V, F, and D; but it is impossible to form these letters from the tattoo in the movie. However, Brett Helquist's illustrations of Olaf's ankle in the books are the same as the tattoo depicted in the film. The Wide Window *Aunt Josephine appears to have previously met Violet and in turn the parents whereas in the novel she knows little to nothing of any of them. *In the film, Olaf leaves Aunt Josephine alone to fend for herself on a sinking boat. The book's ending, however, is far more sinister: Olaf pushes Josephine into the water, and the torn remnants of her lifejacket are later discovered. *In the book, Violet builds a refraction device to signal for help. In the movie, however, she and Klaus call for help and wave their arms. Production Development Nickelodeon Movies purchased the film rights of the entire A Series of Unfortunate Events book series in May 2000. Paramount Pictures, owner of Nickelodeon Movies, agreed to co-finance, along with Scott Rudin. Various filmmakers were interested in directing, among them were Terry Gilliam and Roman Polanski. One of author Daniel Handler's favorites was Guy Maddin. In June 2002 Barry Sonnenfeld was hired to direct. He was chosen based on his previous collaborations with Rudin and his black comedy directing style from The Addams Family (1991), Addams Family Values (1993) and Get Shorty (1995). Sonnenfeld referred to the Lemony Snicket books as his favorite children's stories. The director hired Handler to write the script almost instantly, and cast Jim Carrey as Count Olaf in September 2002. Development setbacks ensued in December 2002. Rudin left Unfortunate Events over budget concerns, while Sonnenfeld and Carrey remained, but Sonnenfeld admitted he was skeptical of Paramount's $100 million budget. It was decided that changing the shoot from Hollywood to Wilmington, North Carolina would be less expensive. The April 2003 start date was also pushed back. Paramount eventually settled the situation in January 2003 by enlisting help from Dreamworks to co-finance the film, but Sonnenfeld vacated the director's position. Rudin and Sonnenfeld had no involvement with the film afterwards, but were credited as executive producers. Carrey remained with approval over the hiring of the next director. Brad Silberling signed on to direct in February 2003. Although he was unfamiliar with the concept before he was approached, the director quickly read the first three books and was excited that "Hollywood was taking a chance to put over $100 million to adapt these inventive children's books onto screen." After writing eight drafts of the script for Sonnenfeld, Handler was replaced by Robert Gordon in May 2003. Handler approved of the changes that were made from his original screenplay. In addition, the author commented that he "was offered credit on the film for screenwriting by the Writers Guild of America, but I didn't take it because I didn't write it. I felt like it would be an insult to the guy who did." Filming Filming was originally set to begin in October 2003 before it was pushed back. Principal photography for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events began on November 10, 2003, using the sound stages and backlot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Director Brad Silberling attempted not to use as much digital or chroma key effects as possible because he wanted the younger actors to feel as if they were working in a realistic environment. Olaf's mansion occupied two sound stages, while the graveyard and the ruins of the Baudelaire mansion were constructed on the Paramount backlot. After 21 weeks of shooting at Paramount, production then moved to Downey Studios, a former NASA facility, for a further eight weeks. Downey housed the circular railroad crossing set complete with forced perspective scenery, as well as a newly-constructed water tank complete with over one million gallons of water. The water tank was instrumental in filming scenes at Briny Beach, Lake Lachrymose, Domocles Dock and Curdled Cave. Filming for A Series of Unfortunate Events ended on May 29, 2004. Design Silberling, production designer Rick Heinrichs and costume designer Colleen Atwood all aimed for a "timeless" setting for the film, wanting to leave it ambiguous. Heinrichs also added in steampunk designs.A Woeful World, 2005, Paramount DVD In addition to Heinrichs and Atwood, Silberling hired Emmanuel Lubezki as the cinematographer because he was impressed with the trio's work on Sleepy Hollow (1999). Lubezki discussed the cinematic similarities to Sleepy Hollow, notably the monochromatic look of both films. He also choose a specific color palette backdrop for A Series of Unfortunate Events. "The story is very episodic, so we picked a different color scheme for each section. For example," Lubezki continued, "Count Olaf’s house has a lot of greens, blacks and grays; the house of Uncle Monty has a lot of greens and browns and a bit of yellow; and the house of Aunt Josephine has blues and blacks." Robert D. Yeoman was brought in as the cinematographer once Lubezki had to leave the production for his commitment to The New World (2005). Yeoman mostly worked on the expansive harbor set at Downey. The art direction was inspired by The Night of the Hunter (1955), which also influenced Handler for the writing of his books. Atwood commented that the Mr. Poe character was based on Edward Gorey paintings.Colleen Atwood, Timothy Spall, Costumes and Other Suspicious Disguises, 2005, Paramount DVD Visual effects Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), supervised by Stefen Fangmeier, created the film's 505 visual effects-shots. The train and smoke for the railroad crossing scene was entirely created using computer animation. ILM also used color grading techniques for the Lake Lachrymose scene, which also required complete animation for the leeches. The digital animators studied footage of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season to accurately depict Hurricane Herman, which was ILM's most ambitious use computer-generated imagery (CGI) for the film.Trains, Leeches & Hurricanes, 2005, Paramount DVD Nexus Productions designed the opening Littlest Elf animated sequence using computer animation, but modeled it after stop motion animation. The snakes at Uncle Monty's house were a combination of real snakes and animatronics. The animatronics, primarily the Incredibly Dead Viper, were used as reference models that ILM later enhanced using CGI. Because working with infants would be impossible or dangerous for a real baby to do, four scenes involving Sunny Baudelaire required CGI with motion capture technology. Among these are the shot of Sunny hanging on to a table by her teeth, catching a spindle with her mouth and the scene where she is entangled with the Incredibly Deadly Viper. Animation supervisor Colin Brady used his baby daughter for motion capture recording.An Even More Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny, 2005, Paramount DVD A remote controlled animatronic of Sunny was also designed by Kevin Yagher.An Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny, 2005, Paramount DVD Reception Marketing In October 2002 Nickelodeon Movies hired Activision to create the film's tie-in video game. The agreement also included options for sequels. Director Brad Silberling delivered his first cut of the film in August 2004. Fearing his original version was "too dark", Paramount and DreamWorks conducted test screenings. It was then decided to re-edit A Series of Unfortunate Events over family-friendliness concerns. Given its December release, the film's marketing campaign was criticized for being a deliberately anti-holiday comedy with taglines like, "Taking the cheer out of Christmas" and "Mishaps. Misadventures. Mayhem. Oh Joy." The premiere for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was held at the Cinerama Dome. A 20,000-square-foot tent display on Vine Street was decorated with pieces from the film's sets. Release The film was released in the United States on December 17, 2004 in 3,620 theaters, earning $30.06 million in its opening weekend. In its run, A Series of Unfortunate Events faced competition from Meet the Fockers, The Aviator and Coach Carter. The film eventually grossed $118.63 million in US totals and $90.44 million elsewhere, coming to a worldwide total of $209.07 million. It is the highest grossing film under the Nickelodeon Movies banner. Paramount Home Video released the film on DVD in April 2005 in both single-disc and two-disc special edition format. Critical analysis Based on 151 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of the critics enjoyed A Series of Unfortunate Events with an average score of 6.6/10. The film was more balanced with 31 critics in ''Rotten Tomatoes "Top Critics" poll, receiving a 58% approval rating on a 6.5 score. By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 62/100, based on 37 reviews. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune praised Rick Heinrichs' production design and Jim Carrey for having a balanced performance as a scene stealer. Elder called the film "exceptionally clever, hilariously gloomy and bitingly subversive." Desson Thomson from The Washington Post reasoned over the characterization of Count Olaf. "Olaf is a humorless villain in the book. He's not amusing like Carrey at all. To which I would counter: If you can't let Carrey be Carrey, put someone boring and less expensive in the role. In his various disguises he's rubbery, inventive and improvisationally inspired. I particularly liked his passing imitation of a dinosaur." Ty Burr, writing in The Boston Globe observed that "Director Brad Silberling has essentially made a Tim Burton movie without the weird shafts of adolescent pain. At the same time, Silberling's not a hack like Chris Columbus, and Snicket has more zip and inspired filmcraft than the first two ''Harry Potter'' films. The film's no masterpiece, but at least you're in the hands of people who know what they're doing. The movie, like the books, flatters children's innate sense that the world is not a perfect place and that anyone who insists otherwise is trying to sell you something. How you deal with the cognitive dissonance of a $125 million Hollywood picture telling you this is up to you. At least there are no Lemony Snicket Happy Meals. Yet." Internet reviewer James Berardinelli felt that "the film is first and foremost a fantasy, but there are dark currents running just beneath the surface. I give Silberling credit for not allowing them to swallow the film. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events manages to remain witty throughout." Roger Ebert gave a mixed review. "Jim Carrey is over the top as Count Olaf, but I suppose a character named Count Olaf is over the top by definition. I liked the film, but I'll tell you what. I think this one is a tune-up for the series, a trial run in which they figure out what works and what needs to be tweaked. The original Spider-Man (2001) was a disappointment, but the same team came back and made Spider-Man 2, the best superhero movie ever made." Scott Foundas of Variety gave a negative review, criticizing the filmmakers for sacrificing the storyline in favor of visual elements such as set design and cinematography. "A Series of Unfortunate Events suggests what Mary Poppins (1964) might have looked like had Tim Burton directed it. Not surprisingly, Burton's longtime production designer Rick Heinrichs was responsible for the sets, while ace Emmanuel Lubezki (Burton's Sleepy Hollow) contributed the expressionistic lighting schemes." Awards Makeup designer Valli O'Reilly and Bill Corso won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. Production designer Rick Heinrichs and set decorator Cheryl Carasik (Art Direction), Colleen Atwood (Costume Design) and composer Thomas Newman (Original Music Score) were also nominated for their work at 77th Academy Awards. The film lost the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film to Spider-Man 2, but was honored for its DVD special edition release. O'Reilly and Corso were also nominated the Saturn Award for Best Make-up, but lost to Hellboy. Sequel(s) : See also: Untitled Lemony Snicket Sequel Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies hoped the film would carry a vein similar to the ''Harry Potter'' film series. Jim Carrey was attracted to the film because he found it to be a good recurring franchise character that would still allow him each time to dive into a new role. "I don't have a deal a sequel, but it's one that I wouldn't mind doing again because there are so many characters," the actor explained in December 2004. "I mean, it's just so much fun. It's so much fun being a bad actor playing a character..." In May 2005 producer Laurie MacDonald said "Lemony Snicket is still something Paramount is interested in pursuing and we're going to be talking with them more." In an October 2008 interview, Daniel Handler said that "a sequel does seem to be in the works. Paramount has had quite a few corporate shakeups, widely documented in articles I find too stupefying to finish, which has led to many a delay. Of course many, many plans in Hollywood come to naught, but I'm assured that another film will be made. Someday. Perhaps." In June 2009, Silberling confirmed he still talked about the project with Handler, and suggested the sequel be a stop motion film because the lead actors have grown too old. "In an odd way, the best thing you could do is actually have Lemony Snicket say to the audience, 'Okay, we pawned the first film off as a mere dramatization with actors. Now I'm afraid I’m going to have to show you the real thing.'" References External links * Official website *